Barbie wrote:If you get enough people together with one VISION for our default world a Vision of like what our community IS at BRC =what if it could spread every WHERe - LIke the oLD days ya know Small town kine- when you ALwaysssss helped your neighbors and you were HAPPY to do so - every one knows everyone and thats how its allllllll kept together and going 'cause your counting ONE another to be there.....

YES We CAN covert the default world into a VISION - I Have HOPE

OBANATION YEA I Believe!!!!

that he'll cut a lot of peeps Money off

an interesting note in what you pose here, is,...... IMHO, ......

Big government, does not want us relying on eachother for help.
Their power is derived from the fact that we'd all look to them for everything.........medicine, food, shelter.............womb to the tomb, as such........

but,

if we have eachother to depend on, in times of need, we won't look to them, and, therefore, they become less necessary, and, therefore, not as powerful...............
And, as such, not needed and ,poof, there goes their jobs and power base.....

don't think the prez is a small gov. guy.........he's not............none have been for a long time now...........
they change the faces of who presents us with more government, and, what they promise, but, the common thread is they all want bigger government.......to help...... and protect us...........sometimes, from ourselves..........

We can't be willing sheep if we don't need them to stay alive, and happy............

if we depend on them, we'll go along with whatever they want, so long as we get cable tv and fast food...............

one of the big gov. levers they have on states, is, withholding federal money..............they get states to pass certain laws, since, it's illegal for some things to be federally enforced or mandated.
and, if the state does not do what they want, they withhold road or welfare or whatever monies.........

what if we could say:
"keep your money, we're fine as we are"

according to the constitution, states are mostly set up to be more like their own countries, with little to no interference from the fed..........
and, the 10th amendment has been totally sidestepped by the money thing..........

I agree with you, lets make community............lets help eachother, work with eachother........form strong, small communities where we know eachother.........and, if you're hungry, I'll feed you, if your cold, stay at my place.............you'll do the same for me.........

Even a big city can do that, in the sense of sections or whatever.......
and, knowing we all need to cooperate to thrive, we can...............
A more spartan society, to be sure, but, healthier........IMHO.......

and keep the Fed out of our lives..........do what they do best, and, stay out of the rest, and out of our pockets...............

But,
that will also diminish their power base, their system of forced charity........they'll take my money, and, decide who deserves it and for what...........or who needs attacking, and why..........

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (CNN) -- Dutch authorities will file charges against a lawmaker for inciting religious hatred in speeches and a film he made about Islam last year, an Amsterdam district prosecutor told CNN Wednesday.

Prosecutors had originally decided not to press charges against Geert Wilders, 43, a member of parliament for the right-wing Party for Freedom.

"We thought a conviction would not be possible," prosecutor Otto Van Der Bijl told CNN. But nine people filed complaints with the Court of Appeal, he said. The court found there was a "reasonable suspicion that Mr. Wilders is guilty of the charges and the prosecution should in fact proceed."

Wilders blasted the court decision as "an all-out assault on freedom of speech," in a statement posted on his party's Web site.

"Apparently this is the Netherlands today. If you speak out you might be prosecuted. To participate in public debate has become a dangerous activity," he said in the statement, which also called for donations to the party to help him fight the charges in court.

The charges stem partly from a 15-minute film Wilders released online last March, "Fitna," which features disturbing images of terrorist acts superimposed over verses from the Quran to paint Islam as a threat to Western society.

The movie drew complaints from the European Union and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, as well as concern from the United States, which warned it could spark riots.

The film opens with a controversial caricature of the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, followed by translated portions of Islam's holy book, the Quran. The passages are interspersed with graphic images of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States juxtaposed with audio from 9-1-1 calls made by the victims trapped inside the World Trade Center in New York.

The video includes images of other terror attacks; bloodied victims; beheadings of hostages; executions of women in hijab, the traditional full-body covering; and footage, with subtitles, of Islamic leaders preaching inflammatory sermons against Jews and Christians.

The film concludes with scrolling messages reading in part: "The government insists that you respect Islam, but Islam has no respect for you" and "In 1945, Nazism was defeated in Europe. In 1989, communism was defeated in Europe. Now the Islamic ideology has to be defeated."

Wilders has been outspoken in his criticism of Islam and called the religion a threat to the world.

"It's not a provocation, but the harsh reality and a political conclusion," Wilders said of the film when it was released last year.

The title "Fitna," is Arabic for "strife" or "conflict" of the type that occurs within families or any other homogenous group.

In deciding that Wilders should face charges, the Court of Appeal did not rule on the lawmaker's guilt or innocence, prosecutor Van Der Bijl said.

"The prosecutor's office is now working on an indictment," he said, adding that it could take months to complete.

Van Der Bijl said he did not expect Wilders to be arrested before he comes to trial.

The charges are "insulting groups of people" and "inciting hatred against people of a certain faith," related to his film and speeches, the prosecutor said.

Five years ago, Dutch director Theo van Gogh was stabbed to death by a member of a radical Islamic group after his short film "Submission" used verses from the Koran written on women's bodies to criticize the treatment of women in Islamic cultures.

His co-producer on the project, Somali-born former Dutch lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali, lived under government protection for several years after van Gogh's killing. She now lives in the United States.

GAZA: In early January, a week into Israel's war in Gaza, the home of Sabah Abu Halima was hit by an Israeli shell. The matriarch of a farming family in the northern area of Beit Lahiya, Abu Halima was caught in an unspeakable inferno that ended up killing her husband and four of their nine children.

But as she lay on the third floor of an annex to Shifa Hospital here Wednesday, bandaged all over and in terrible pain, it was less the magnitude of her loss than the source of the fire that was drawing attention, not only from her doctors but from international human rights organizations and even the Israeli military.

Her family was hit by a phosphorus shell, which would likely violate international law. The Israeli military issued a short statement saying it had opened an investigation into whether its forces had improperly used phosphorus weapons.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International said it found "indisputable evidence of widespread use of white phosphorus in densely populated residential areas in Gaza City and in the north."

In a statement, it added that its investigators "saw streets and alleyways littered with evidence of the use of white phosphorus, including still burning wedges and the remnants of the shells and canisters fired by the Israeli army." It called such use a likely war crime and demanded a full impartial investigation.

Abu Halima said that when her family was hit, "fire came from the body of my husband and my children. The children were screaming, 'fire, fire,' and there was smoke everywhere and a horrible, suffocating smell. My 14-year-old cried out, 'I'm going to die. I want to pray.' I saw my daughter-in-law melt away."

She said that when her neighbors saw her and her family burning they were so afraid that they all fled.

Dr. Nafez Abu Shaban, head of Shifa's burn unit, said the burns that he treated on the Abu Halima family were of a kind he had never seen before, reaching to the bone and muscle.

"They were deeper and wider than anything I had seen, a bad odor came from the wounds and smoke continued to come out of them for many hours," he said as he sat in his office around the corner from Abu Halima's sickbed, a chart on his desk entitled "Estimating Severity of Burn Wounds."

He added, "We took out a piece of foreign matter that a colleague identified as white phosphorus."

Shaban said dozens of such cases came to Shifa during the war and his unit was unprepared for how to handle them. Many have been sent to Egypt and abroad from there. In a few cases, he said, seemingly limited burns led to the patients' deaths. The doctors discovered that the best way to deal with such phosphorus burns was to get the patients immediately into surgery and clean the area thoroughly. But that was learned only after it was too late for some. Initial attempts to dress phosphorus burns like normal ones made them worse.

The phosphorus weapons used by Israel are mostly 155-millimeter shells normally used to spread a thick white smoke to screen military actions. They contain more than 100 pieces of felt soaked in phosphorus that when shot into the air can land on people and cause intense burning, according to Chris Cobb-Smith, who spent 20 years in the army and is in Gaza as part of Amnesty International's investigative team.

The phosphorus is used both to ignite and to add a whiter color when they hit the ground for better cover and to mark targets.

The Haaretz newspaper said Wednesday that the military's probe into the phosphorus weapons also included 81- and 120-millimeter shells, but a military spokesman would not immediately confirm that.

It added that the investigation was focusing on a reserve brigade that fired about 20 such shells in the area where Abu Halima lived, Beit Lahiya. The investigation is being led by Colonel Shai Alkalai, an artillery officer.

Haaretz said that about 200 such shells were fired during the fighting, nearly all of them at orchards in which gunmen and rocket-launching crews were taking cover.

The article added that the 120-millimeter phosphorus shells were a recent acquisition. It quoted commanders as saying they had been effective but were apparently also responsible for the strike on a UN school that killed two people and a friendly fire incident that wounded two Israeli officers.

I actually agree that government should be as small as possible; but what that smaller budget should include is where we might differ.

I also don't believe that government programs, such as the government sponsored program Obama has in mind for creating jobs while improving infrastructure for example, and smaller government have to be mutually exclusive.

There's a lot of ways to trim waste while still providing beneficial services; and I'm trying hard to not let skepticism influence my optimism. I dint believe that Obama is one for preserving power in government as you state it.

If I see things are not as I am hoping, you'll see me post my change of attitude; but hopefully I won't have to and America will start looking a lot more like we'd all like it to be.

JK

JKhttp://www.mudskippercafe.comWhen I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle.Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

In June of 2006, then-Senator Obama delivered what was called the most important speech on religion and politics in 40 years. Speaking before an evangelical audience, then-Senator Obama candidly discussed his own religious conversion and doubts, and the need for a deeper, more substantive discussion about the role of faith in American life.

Senator Obama also laid down principles for how to discuss faith in a pluralistic society, including the need for religious people to translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values during public debate. In December 2006, President Obama discussed the importance of faith in the global battle against AIDS.
Arts

Our nation's creativity has filled the world's libraries, museums, recital halls, movie houses, and marketplaces with works of genius. The arts embody the American spirit of self-definition. As the author of two best-selling books â€” Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope â€” President Obama uniquely appreciates the role and value of creative expression.
Child Advocacy

President Obama and Vice President Biden are committed advocates for children. They will make sure that every child has health insurance, expand educational opportunities for low-income children, extend resources for low-income families, support and supplement our struggling foster care system, and protect children from violence and neglect.
Katrina

President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He and Vice President Biden will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur.

President Obama swiftly responded to Hurricane Katrina. Citing the Bush Administration's "unconscionable ineptitude" in responding to Hurricane Katrina, then-Senator Obama introduced legislation requiring disaster planners to take into account the specific needs of low-income hurricane victims. Obama visited thousands of Hurricane survivors in the Houston Convention Center and later took three more trips to the region. He worked with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to introduce legislation to address the immediate income, employment, business, and housing needs of Gulf Coast communities.

President Barack Obama will partner with the people of the Gulf Coast to rebuild now, stronger than ever.
Science

In the past, government funding for scientific research has yielded innovations that have improved the landscape of American life â€” technologies like the Internet, digital photography, bar codes, Global Positioning System technology, laser surgery, and chemotherapy. At one time, educational competition with the Soviets fostered the creativity that put a man on the moon. Today, we face a new set of challenges, including energy security, HIV/AIDS, and climate change. Yet, the United States is losing its scientific dominance. Among industrialized nations, our country's scores on international science and math tests rank in the bottom third and bottom fifth, respectively. Over the last three decades, federal funding for the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences has declined at a time when other countries are substantially increasing their own research budgets. President Obama and Vice President Biden believe federally funded scientific research should play an important role in advancing science and technology in the classroom and in the lab.
Sportsmen

President Obama did not grow up hunting and fishing, but he recognizes the great conservation legacy of America's hunters and anglers and has great respect for the passion that hunters and anglers have for their sports. Were it not for America's hunters and anglers, including the great icons like Theodore Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold, our nation would not have the tradition of sound game management, a system of ethical, science-based game laws and an extensive public lands estate on which to pursue the sport. The President and Vice President recognize that we must forge a broad coalition if we are to address the great conservation challenges we face. America's hunters and anglers are a key constituency that must take an active role and have a powerful voice in this coalition.
Transportation

As our society becomes more mobile and interconnected, the need for 21st-century transportation networks has never been greater. However, too many of our nation's railways, highways, bridges, airports, and neighborhood streets are slowly decaying due to lack of investment and strategic long-term planning. President Obama and Vice President Biden believe that America's long-term competitiveness depends on the stability of our critical infrastructure. They will make strengthening our transportation systems, including our roads and bridges, a top priority

WASHINGTON â€“ President Barack Obama began dismantling the Bush legacy Wednesday, using his first full day to overturn an order that let ex-presidents seal their papers forever.

It was one of a number of big and small steps by the new president that, taken together, amounted to a slashing denunciation of his predecessor â€“ from an order halting military tribunals at GuantÃ¡namo Bay, Cuba, to one meant to make unclassified records more readily available to the public.

"It is a new day," said Lee White, executive director of the National Coalition for History, one of scores of groups that had complained for years about the Bush order regarding White House records. "This ... makes it much more difficult for a former president to shape his legacy."

Researchers generally can't get access to White House records for at least five years after a president leaves office. Documents involving national security remain out of reach far longer.

Concerns over access to White House records had grown more acute as George W. Bush's retirement became imminent.

Bush issued the controversial order two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, citing concerns about the premature release of Clinton-era records, and he defended the policy this month in an interview.

"I am concerned about information getting into the public domain that shouldn't be in the public domain," Bush said.

The policy was a key reason cited by critics of Southern Methodist University's pursuit of his presidential library.

Obama vowed during the campaign to overturn the order, as part of a government "transparency" agenda. Open-government advocates called it a pleasant surprise that he put a focus on the issue so soon after taking office.

"This is the earliest and probably the most emphatic call for more open government from any president," said Tom Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

Bill Clinton took nine months to issue his first directive regarding government records. The Bush administration issued its first directive in October 2001 â€“ a memo by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft that told federal bureaucrats in essence that if they had any reason to withhold records from the public, they should.

"It's a whole new attitude,' said Steven Aftergood, head of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. "It's a repudiation of Bush policies. One of the defining features of the Bush administration was a disdain for public disclosure of information."

Delays for release of Ronald Reagan's records reached seven years at one point. The National Archives blamed a shortage of archivists.

Blanton said Bush policies had aggravated the problem, by signaling that timely release of records that by law the public is entitled to inspect isn't a high priority.

"It put molasses into a system that was already gummed up," he said.

Researchers remain hopeful that Congress will codify the order Obama signed Wednesday, so future presidents can't revert to less open policies on White House records. They are also hoping the new administration classifies fewer documents.

jkisha wrote:Thanks Ygmir, but I merely picked up the torch from joel the ornery.

I actually agree that government should be as small as possible; but what that smaller budget should include is where we might differ.

I also don't believe that government programs, such as the government sponsored program Obama has in mind for creating jobs while improving infrastructure for example, and smaller government have to be mutually exclusive.

There's a lot of ways to trim waste while still providing beneficial services; and I'm trying hard to not let skepticism influence my optimism. I dint believe that Obama is one for preserving power in government as you state it.

If I see things are not as I am hoping, you'll see me post my change of attitude; but hopefully I won't have to and America will start looking a lot more like we'd all like it to be.

JK

I agree a work/stimulus thing can be separated from smaller gov.
I just hope, they do things that actually matter, not a bridge to some small Alaskan island, or, that huge road fiasco, I think it was Boston, or somewhere..........
actually helpful stuff would be neat............

I will disagree with you, though, that well see any meaningful reduction, on purpose, of the federal government or it's powers............But, I hope you're right..........

On another note:

I appreciate yours, and others posts, that are actually their own words...........
I see some lazy, paste and post waste of bandwidth.............with some innocuous, vapant, comments at the end, that, to me, are quite boring.........
I can google info like anyone.
Said posters seem unable or unwilling to have an at least semi civil discussion, preferring to overload a thread with some news feed or another.

I understand the need, or want, at times to post a video or whatever, and, links to articles, with a short description of what said article contains.......but, huge text documents......well.......I usually just skip them....

ygmir wrote:I understand the need, or want, at times to post a video or whatever, and, links to articles, with a short description of what said article contains.......but, huge text documents......well.......I usually just skip them....

Interesting that Obama had to re-take the Oath of Office a second time! When I heard him take it the first time, I thought it was Obama that made the mistake--but it turns out it was the Chief Justice that flubbed it.

So many things happening in this election that I have never seen before or even imagined would happen. Very interesting times.

Between eplaya, msnbc and cnn I don't know how I get any work done.

JK

JKhttp://www.mudskippercafe.comWhen I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle.Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

jkisha wrote:Interesting that Obama had to re-take the Oath of Office a second time! When I heard him take it the first time, I thought it was Obama that made the mistake--but it turns out it was the Chief Justice that flubbed it.

So many things happening in this election that I have never seen before or even imagined would happen. Very interesting times.

Between eplaya, msnbc and cnn I don't know how I get any work done.

JK

They didn't mention on the news whether they used the Lincoln Bible for the second time, or slipped in a Koran. Is there a video where we can check? After "So help me God", I thought I heard him say: "Inshallah. Allhu akbar!" or something. Course, I've been huffing jenkem, so what do I know?

jkisha wrote:Interesting that Obama had to re-take the Oath of Office a second time! When I heard him take it the first time, I thought it was Obama that made the mistake--but it turns out it was the Chief Justice that flubbed it.

So many things happening in this election that I have never seen before or even imagined would happen. Very interesting times.

Between eplaya, msnbc and cnn I don't know how I get any work done.

JK

They didn't mention on the news whether they used the Lincoln Bible for the second time, or slipped in a Koran. Is there a video where we can check? After "So help me God", I thought I heard him say: "Inshallah. Allhu akbar!" or something. Course, I've been huffing jenkem, so what do I know?

no bible at all...............standing in front of a fireplace, IIRC.........

I wonder why the presidential oath doesn't include (paraphrase):

"And will defend the constitution, against all enemies, foreign and domestic"...........?

ygmir wrote:I understand the need, or want, at times to post a video or whatever, and, links to articles, with a short description of what said article contains.......but, huge text documents......well.......I usually just skip them....

Actually, this morning I have a bit of a different view on the size of government.

I don't think I'd care at all how large it grew as long as we had a balanced budget and our deficit brought to zero. I think those two conditions would keep the size of government under control.

If money to run the government were finite the debate over how to spend it would be a whole lot different than it is now and hopefully important programs would nudge out all the garbage.

But right now I'm in a wait and see mode. If there is any hope to fix the problems of government it is now. If the status-quo continues to be maintained, I'll be joining you in the synics corner.

JK

I'm with you on all, but the above, highlighted in red:

Big government is just a problem waiting to happen, and, a waste of resources.......inherently inefficient at most things.......so, the size may matter.....(giggling)........
and, it seems a somewhat conflicted statement, in that, keeping the size of gov. under control is the whole point, so, I'm not sure how that goes with not caring how big it gets.

not a big issue, I'm just not following you on that.

I'm totally on gov. living within their means.........

they seem to always see budget issues as a revenue problem, when, I'd like to see them look at it as a spending problem..........
but, since they see revenue as unending................

I really think we are in agreement on that too. My thought as I was typing was that with a balanced budget, size of the government would be more self limiting in size and that the money would have to be spent on the more important and necessary programs/projects. It's easy to sponsor all sorts of projects/departments/pork when it's put on the credit card of our grand-kids; but lots harder when it has to all be paid for with cold hard cash.

JK

ygmir wrote:

jkisha wrote:

ygmir wrote:I understand the need, or want, at times to post a video or whatever, and, links to articles, with a short description of what said article contains.......but, huge text documents......well.......I usually just skip them....

Actually, this morning I have a bit of a different view on the size of government.

I don't think I'd care at all how large it grew as long as we had a balanced budget and our deficit brought to zero. I think those two conditions would keep the size of government under control.

If money to run the government were finite the debate over how to spend it would be a whole lot different than it is now and hopefully important programs would nudge out all the garbage.

But right now I'm in a wait and see mode. If there is any hope to fix the problems of government it is now. If the status-quo continues to be maintained, I'll be joining you in the synics corner.

JK

I'm with you on all, but the above, highlighted in red:

Big government is just a problem waiting to happen, and, a waste of resources.......inherently inefficient at most things.......so, the size may matter.....(giggling)........and, it seems a somewhat conflicted statement, in that, keeping the size of gov. under control is the whole point, so, I'm not sure how that goes with not caring how big it gets.

not a big issue, I'm just not following you on that.

I'm totally on gov. living within their means.........

they seem to always see budget issues as a revenue problem, when, I'd like to see them look at it as a spending problem..........but, since they see revenue as unending................

JKhttp://www.mudskippercafe.comWhen I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle.Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.